My sister wants one for her 1st car, but I know jack shit (aint used that term in a while) about them, any idea what common faults are? They reliable things or not? Cheap running costs?

Cheers people!

 

There like a base model arn't they????? You see a few floating around so they can't be bad!

Don't know if this will help?! http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar...ne-d-r50-2003/

Hope that helps mate!

 

PAS can be problematic and have heard of a few people suffering with core plugs weeping.

 

I know they make a fecking mess of the back of a Saff, when one hits you up the arse at about 5mph! :-(

 

saw one in a local garage that had had a dowel pin come out of the flywheel, the pin had then been picked up by something and fired through the bellhousing and outer casing of the gearbox, making a hole you could put your hand through.
Gearbox was f****d to say the least!

 

Tailgates rot out behind the handle, so check the boot floor for water. Bmw should warrant the tailgate as part of their anti corrosion policy. Done loads when I worked at Elms. PAS can play up and the usual suspension bushes and ball joints. be careful when buying one with graphics on the roof or bonnet because they brake up with age and won't come off without having to paint the panel. Window regulators can play up too. Bomb proof Chrysler engine should rev well and loves to be pushed. Find a good one and you'll enjoy it.

 

Ooo yeah, electric windows can pack up and the connector on the battery that disconnects it in a punt can die and cause the airbag light to come on.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Gear boxes on early models seemed to be an issue, as said, power steering pumps as said, sunroofs warp and wont open/close properly and may leak.

They do seem to be a problematic little car, but that said, my sister has a 51 plate cat C one and it didn't really cause her much trouble. My other sister has a 55 plate and the steering pump went but not much else really. I guess just buy the best you can rather than the newest is the key.

http://www.minitorque.com/forum/forum.php

above site it friendly and should help with buyers guides or problems to watch out for.

 

Water logged body control modules.

 

My sister has a top spec every option turbo copper s. Really nice car things got the big wheels double sun roof full leather heated screen up grade sound system the workers never given her a single problem

 

Gearboxes n ps pumps main sellers and engines bust when hit in the frt lol

 

Thanks everyone! Cant see this one having any mods done on it mind!

 

Another quality bmw product lol.

The exhaust mounts snap too on the back box.

 

The few we looked after where I used to work all 3 of them had problems with the gearboxes and front suspension bushes and clutches are very labour intensive. The diesel ones I've come across are Peugeot engines

 

So she wants a car that is potentially unreliable, she might as well just go for a blue oval!

 

I used to own a 52 Plate Mini Cooper-S as well as run a small club. Some things in my list will have already been mentioned above.

1) Early gearboxes issues
2) Exhaust hangers rusting
3) Hydro-electric steering issues
4) Coolant header bottle splitting
5) Clutches take some hours to change
6) Electric window issues
7) Central locking issues
8) Lower subframe bushings
9) Fan sticking on

Through my 5 years - 70k miles ownership I had the fan stick on, lower subframe bushing replaced, electric window and central locking issues.

On the plus side, the difference between a One and a Cooper (petrol) is a remap so you can obtain some gains with something off the shelf.

 

I'm just personally being biased as a mechanic I hate working on them with a passion but some people I know like working on them, horses for courses really, if your paying someone else to fix it then it won't affect u apart from slight more labour rate for what would normally be a simple job. I think as long as it's service regularly and looked after u should be fine. All cars break, we had a week old Mitsubishi phev in the other day with a fault so I think u should be ok lol

 

I know someone who had one and both the front seats broke so they wouldn't move.

 

Thanks folks!

 

Will a Mini one not be a bit strong on insurance for a 1st car?

 

No.

More modern cars are lighter on insurance than cheaper/older ones.

My Friend's son was looking at cars for his first car when he turned 17 and insurance quotes on older Fiestas and such like were horrendous, like Ł2500+.

He got a quote on a brand new FIAT 500 Abarth as he was offered a good finance deal on one and the insurance quote was just over Ł700 when he passed his test. Less than 12 months later he bought a new Audi S1 as soon as they came out last year and his insurance was still in the Ł700's.

I guess modern safety and security features, plus the fact they're more likely to look after a new car than a cheap old banger is why newer cars come out cheaper on insurance.

 

Audi S1 at 18 for 700? I smell some hefty insurance fronting by mummy and daddy there.

 

Header tank splitting is only an issue on the S's, if it's an early one that she gets then the gearbox will expire if it's been ragged. The lower arm bushes will more than likely need replacing too, give that job to a garage as it's a subframe off job to do it ideally

 

Mine was a subframe off jobby, it must of took a Mini specialist around 3 hours.

 

No, I can 100% guarantee that's not the case. His Dad is a friend and business partner of mine. When they were looking for a cheap car to start with his dad looked into putting him as a names driver for a year and it barely made a difference to the cost of the premium on the small cars he was getting quoted Ł2500+ on. The only time they ever "shared" an insurance was when he was looking for small motorbike at 16, again it was stupidly expensive for small/cheap bikes and it worked out more cost-effective for them to buy a new bike together and he was named on his dad's policy, but they sold the bike so his half could pay for the deposit on the Abarth he bought.

The lad works for an insurance company (Legal & General) which may or may not help (he's not insured with them I don't think, but different jobs affect insurance premium) and they did give him some kind of NCD for the year he was riding his bike.

EDIT: I might by wrong on the figures, it might be just over a grand. I know his Abarth was Ł700-something and I thought the increase was less than Ł100, but it might be a bit more, but either way it's still cheap for his age and the car when a 15 year old Ł500 would cost him more to insure still. I'll ask his dad tomorrow as the said S1 is currently at Forge Motorsport having all sorts of upgrades done FOC as they'll use it as a test bed/example car, so would be intersted to know how much that will add to his premium.

 

I hate to work on them, I diagnosed a power steering pump on one today, same car has had nearly 2k spent on it in the last 3 months.

 

My mum used to have until I made her sell it. In the 2 years she owned it I replaced the power steering pump, the thermostat, the water pump, passanger side window regulator, wiper motor, the gearbox as it whined like a good 'un, the exhaust back box mounts twice, and a rear caliper. I got sick of spending my Saturday afternoons fixing the damn thing. She might have just had a bad one? But she is the only person I know who has owned one.

 

You guys are un lucky lol my sisters has been faultless so far for 2 years

 

My 2001 Cooper has been great, feels really solid and well made, but has had a couple of bushes go (I Powerflex'd the lot when they did), the airbag light on and the battery connection issue.

People forget how old the early ones are as to most of us it only feels like 5 minutes since they came out.

 

Brake pipes corrode on a lot of them I see, I do live on the coast though.

 

GF had one and tbh I quite liked it, it wasn't the worst thing to work on and was pretty fun to nip around in. The microswitch on the boot failed, apparently this is common, the steering motor went, I replaced it with a good used one which failed 6 months later,

The steering motor is badly designed, brush material (dust) was aloud to freely flood over the motor control PCB which is sitting on the end of the motor, after some bench testing the original motor was fixed by cleaning the PCB, blowing all the brush dust off, conformally coating the PCB and sealing the PCB chamber with silicon rubber, here on the motor was 100% for the next 2 years. I would certainly advice stripping a working motor and doing the above as a preventative fix.

We had some tyres fitted by a mob of monkey brained fucktards who jacked the car up under one of the rear arms, they are cast ali and it snapped, they didn't say anything to her obviously so she drove home like it and reported that "it felt a bit funny and people kept beeping" lol, the back wheel was sitting at 45 deg.

In the end I sold it as the gearbox became very noisy. However I've been told that BMW sorted gearbox issues after 2003ish, plus there are good company's set up who deal with broken mini boxes quickly and cheaply.

All in all, not a terrible car for a 1st timer. Better than the equivalent french muck.

 

Crap on fuel and drink oil, quite a harsh ride, but nice looking things

 

Advoid diesel ones , 2008 on as they have a DPF filter to make the emission cleaner , Ł1420 to replace , engine light comes on and you loose all power , just traded ours in (60REG with 33000 miles on) with this problem ,

 

work in a breakers now if u bump them hard enough to damage the radiator it will break the engine block

 

I love reading BS stories on the Internet about how much people reckon insurance costs

 

To be fair thats a problem with dpf's fitted to any diesel?

 

She has checked, its expensive, but manageable.

 

I've asked him today, he pays Ł680 with Admiral for a policy limited to 5000 miles.

He's actually 20, didn't get his first car until he was 18 and had that about 18 months, so he's a little older than I thought he was.

Whether you believe it or not, it's no skin off my nose and couldn't care less, but anyone who knows who I am on here (recent account, but I've been here since day one) knows my word is gospel.

The point was he'd be paying double that for an old car worth a fraction of the cost.

Car insurance is a weird thing. One of the popular "specialist" insurers (think it may have been Greenlight, but don't quote me on that) listed cars they don't cover and amongst that was any model of E36 BMW, whereas most insurers wouldn't bat an eyelid. I had my first E36 at 19 and paid Ł700-odd, which was only a slight increase over my previous Escort GTi.

A girl I knew a few years back who was about 20 at the time had been saving up for a MK1 Audi TT and when she got the cash together to buy, she started shopping for insurance assuming that the 180bhp would be cheaper on insurance, but the 225bhp model came up lots cheaper (think it was Ł900 compared to Ł1500 rough figures) and the way insurance is calculated by these insurance companies is their computer throws up a specific model and it's affected by all kinds of factors, but one of the biggest ones is the amount of claims against that very specific model and if there's a load of claims against an Audi TT 180 then it'll rocket the price up. And if there's very few claims against an Audi TT 225 then it'll make it that much cheaper, even though it's a more powerful, higher spec and probably more valuable car.

I have Trade insurance and my previous policy excluded only two specific types of car on the policy:

1. North American Imports
2. Ford RS Cosworth Models (It would cover the Granada/Scorpio Cosworth as that's not an RS)

But last year I switched to another policy which is more expensive, but covers a higher value and has no exclusions.

Professional drivers (Lorry/Van/Taxi etc) tend to pay more for their insurance as their job is seen to increase risk for some reason...

When I was on the forums as a young lad who'd just passed his test, my insurance on comparable cars was a lot less than a lot of the lads. I know my post code helps and I shopped around literally everywhere and even had the rep from CIS Insurance out. I paid Ł730 fully comp on a 1994 Escort 1.6 LX and 12 months later with 1 year NCD paid about Ł50 more for a 1998 Escort GTi with all mods declared.

 

Your sisters is an r56. Everyone else is talking about r50/53. R56 is much better car but look out for timing chain rattling.